Quite a surprising turn of events with Abutsubo showing up with his wife several days after our first rather contentious encounter. When he showed up that first time with 40 other villagers there was so much anger among them I feared for my life. It is part of human nature that when closely held values or ideas are challenged then the response is as if one’s very life is threatened, and these folks were acting in a typical fashion. Chaos is what is at the heart of things.
When I first began I challenged the belief in Pure Land Buddhism and that immediately set off a firestorm. I regret the trouble I caused my teacher, Dozenbo. He was always so kind to me as a boy, though it never failed it seemed that I caused him no end of grief. From the time I was brought to him by my parents it just seemed as if there was one thing after another for me to challenge and get under his skin. I never meant to cause him the amount of trouble that my last actions brought.
Ah, well, all that is beyond me now. Here I sit with Abustubo and his wife and I have nothing to offer them other than the Lotus Sutra, which is all I have to sustain me. It is the single spark left to me with which to kindle the small flame of my life. I had no idea that my words on that first day would have made such a significant impact on his life, when I simply felt lucky enough to have dissuaded them from attacking me. To them I represented chaos, and my belief in the Lotus Sutra throws a big question mark over all they have been taught and believe. But they listened, or at least this one man did and now he has brought his wife to meet me, and she insisted they both bring me food. Abutsubo has rescued me from starvation for another few days, ironic.
To think this ruffian and I have become rather strange companions, though I look more like a beggar than a priest. And the only sort of priest that I am is simply a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra. You would think though, from the stories Abutsubo has shared with me, I am the most evil and dangerous man in Japan. Of course that is what the government tells them, and I suppose to the established order I am dangerous. Abutsubo says that even though the villagers came on strong it was mostly they were afraid that I would strike them dead on the spot by casting a spell of some sort on them.
Imagine Abutsubo the ruffian and me the scamp. Dozenbo my teacher said from the day he met me when my parents showed up at his temple he immediately labeled me a scamp, he even called me that, how fondly I think of those days of relative ease. I have come a long unimaginably long way from the comfort of my home, my parents, and my teacher.
The New Year is tomorrow and I had thought I would have no steamed rice cakes to set before the Lotus Sutra, however a messenger arrived earlier today with over 100 pieces of mochi and some dried preserved fruit. I feel as if somehow I am very fortunate even as I freeze in this dilapidated old grave keepers hut. It is so blasted cold I can hardly hold the brush long enough to write even one character let alone compose a proper letter of gratitude. Yet, the messenger is in a hurry to depart back to the mainland because of pending rough seas, and I know all about those rough seas from my voyage here.
New Years are a beginning a demarcation of time that while arbitrary does have significance in helping us focus on a new beginning. We could, in fact set aside any day or every day to be the beginning of a new year, but sadly as people do, it would become insignificant. And so we have a New Year’s Day. It is important to make offerings in appreciation for all that we have benefited from during the past year. Gratitude is the heart of living a happy life. Gratitude at the new beginning of a year sets the course for the new year of joy and happiness.
One may wonder how I can be so happy in all this unending cold and hunger I am now enduring or while I suffered much harassment from the government and religious leaders. But hell and suffering are not manifestations of the physical realm. Hell is how we process and respond to the external. Hell is a part of our very nature along side of enlightenment. The two are not conditions of our environment but instead originate from within and influence how we perceive our surroundings and events in our lives. I hope I can convey this as I write this letter at the beginning of the New Year in appreciation for the priceless gift of mocha and fruit.
(I used some liberty and framed this episode around the time of the New Year, when I wrote it. I also drew upon a very popular letter ascribed to Nichiren, but of dubious origins frequently called ‘New Year’s Gosho’. There is no authoritative proof that Nichiren wrote this or that he didn’t. But it is not hard to imagine that a letter such as it was not ever written. The celebration of the New Year has always been an important event, and in Japan the offering of steamed rice cakes, called mochi, is a traditional offering.)
